USA NSA:
"In for a penny, in for a pound": a philosophy of surveillance14.08.2015A
recent article published by The Intercept (11 August)
examines the work of the NSA's in-house "surveillance philosopher"
- the "Socrates of SIGINT" - and his willingness to
be "constantly and completely monitored". His columns,
from an internal NSA internal newsletter, were included amongst
the files leaked by Edward Snowden.

"That was the question the NSA
asked its workforce in a memo soliciting applications for an
in-house ethicist who would write a philosophically minded column
about signals intelligence. The column, which would be posted
on a classified network at the NSA, should be absorbing and original,
the memo said, asking applicants to submit a sample to show they
had what it takes to be the Socrates of SIGINT.

"In 2012, the column was given
to an analyst in the Signals Intelligence Directorate who wrote
that initially he opposed the government watching everyone but
came around to total surveillance after a polygraph exam did
not go well. In a turn of events that was half-Sartre and half-Blade
Runner, he explained that he was sure he failed the polygraph
because the examiner did not know enough about his life to understand
why at times the needle jumped."

&COPY; Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X.
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